People are super underrating
this time around, in my opinion.
While it's true some things got hit (Mechakoopa dying when hitting a shield blows), to say he is otherwise unchanged feels wrong to me.
For starters, using clown kart no longer rids him of his second jump. This is huge, as it lets him stall below stage rather well, or allows him to recover rather high. Mixing up my recovery to get back to stage is really fun.
Speaking of clown kart, the super armor on it is actually noticeable this time around. Sometimes I find myself getting janked out of it though, but overall it feels better to use. It still combos like crazy, giving
a great burst of damage if he manages to hit you with it. RamHam (sibe b into up b hammer) is still a great kill confirm that helps him close out stocks. The spinout also kills now! Also, of course, the clown kart hurtbox takes priorty over
's hitbox, which is huge.
Mechakoopa is still a really good pressure tool that helps Jr. approach when placed behind him. The added bonus of MK sticking to people before exploding can let
pull off some funny stuff, like stick > fair > explode. I do wish deploying it were a little faster though.
Cannonball actually got really good changes, and what was absolutely my least used move for
suddenly changed to a really good ranged pressure tool for
. It is leagues faster than
's Cannonball, in both startup and endlag, as well as charging it. It has 2 hitboxes, 1 as it's flying through the air, and another upon landing. This move does
great shield damage. Trying to shield both hits will absolutely deal massive damage to your shield, if not breaking it outright. You can now have 2 cannonballs out at once, a huge change as it allows
to set up a pretty formidable wall, with MK on the ground and one or two cannonballs hurtling toward you. At the end of it's travel time, it begin to dip and if it falls offstage it can be used for some pretty great gimps. My favorite is using it like
's Plasma Breath to clip right past the ledge and hit anyone who's trying to recover. I'm not trying to say it's the best projectile or anything, no way. There's still plenty better. But Cannonball is absolutely usable.
His aerials are probably the most unchanged outside of the universal landing lag buffs, which I'm perfectly fine with. Dair still does great damage, fair and bair still autocancel, sh drawback fair still being a great spacing tool, bair still coming out relatively fast and still boasting great kill power, and uair still sets up for great juggles. Nair, however, now autocancels. Being able to cross up shields with it is pretty great, and is a pretty good OoS option.
His grabs was absolutely changed for the better. Losing range means nothing now that it's an actual grab now, with uthrow comboing into several uairs and finally a bair/fair. Dthrow does 15% and the angle sends them at the perfect spot for edgeguarding, bthrow can kill at the ledge at around 130%. Fthrow is still... there.
Finally, his normals. Jab, oh lord, this move. I love it so much. It does great damage. you can actually land the finishing punch, unlike
's garbage jab. It can
kill at the ledge. A move that is as non-committal as a jab can kill. It is especially scary when you're hanging onto ledge and he's waiting for you to make a move.
I know I'm listing a lot of good for
, and it may seem like I'm trying to say he's a "secret top tier" or something but know that isn't the case. He does have a good bit holding him back (up b still gimpable as all hell, stronger zoners/projectile characters make it difficult for him to do things, etc.), but even then I just can't say he's 2nd worst, bottom 3, or bottom 5 even. That's just my 2 cents though.